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Battenfeld: Democrats have a big 2024 problem, and it’s not just Joe Biden

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:45:22 GMT

Democrats have a two-word problem in 2024 and it’s not Joe Biden.The bigger overall headache for the party is Kamala Harris, the inept, inarticulate understudy who stands to become president if Biden can’t serve out a second term.If Biden pulls a switcheroo and doesn’t run for a second term because of his age and health, Harris would be the presumed frontrunner. That’s a big problem.Polls show that Americans have even less confidence in Harris than they do of Biden and that’s saying a lot.Voters are not completely clueless. They see Biden stumbling around on stage and fumbling his words and realize that the president’s chances of making it through a second term at age 86 are not good.That’s why Democrats are planning for Biden to go through the motions of a primary campaign over the next year, to promote his “successes,” shore up his glaring weaknesses and dispatch Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.Kennedy is polling at about 20% right now even though he’s barely begun his campaign – a sign of ...

Trump beats Biden, sees no slip in support despite charges, polling shows

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:45:22 GMT

They don’t call him Teflon Don for no reason.Former President Donald Trump has been impeached twice, arrested twice, lost the popular vote twice, and failed to secure a second term in the White House.The 45th president is currently facing 71 federal and state felony charges and reporting indicates that’s perhaps just the beginning of his legal troubles, with further legal action potentially pending from alleged election interference in Georgia and whatever his role might have been in ending almost three centuries of uninterrupted peaceful transfers of power between presidential administrations.Despite all of that — or perhaps because of it — he is still the leading contender for the Republican nomination in 2024, if not the presidency, according to the latest polling by the Harvard Center for American Political Science and poll agency Harris.Conducted in the days after the former commander-in-chief pleaded “not guilty” to charges filed under the Espionage Act he willfully reta...

Will Patriots CB Jack Jones go to prison? Here’s what we know

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:45:22 GMT

Patriots cornerback Jack Jones will be arraigned in East Boston Municipal Court this week after being arrested for allegedly attempting to bring two firearms onto a flight at Logan International Airport last Friday.His arraignment is likely to begin Tuesday. Then, could Jones go to prison?If so, for how long?Will he ever play for the Patriots again?To shed light on the legal challenges and journey ahead, the Herald consulted with several Massachusetts attorneys and law experts. Jones’ agent did not return an email seeking comment.According to Massachusetts State Police, Jones, 25, has been charged with two counts of each of the following: possession of a concealed weapon in a secure area of an airport, possession of ammunition without a firearm identification card, unlawful possession of a firearm, carrying a loaded firearm and possession of a large-capacity feeding device.What we knowAccording to State Police, the firearms were discovered Friday in a passenger’s carry-o...

French investigators search the offices of Paris Olympic organizers in corruption probe

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:45:22 GMT

PARIS (AP) — French investigators searched the headquarters of Paris Olympic organizers on Tuesday in a probe into suspected corruption, according to the national financial prosecutor’s office.The Paris organizing committee said in a statement that a search was under way at their headquarters in the suburb of Saint-Denis, and that “Paris 2024 is cooperating with the investigators to facilitate their investigations.” It would not comment further.Paris becomes the third straight Summer Games organizer implicated in investigations led by anti-corruption authorities in the French capital.Vote-buying allegations linked to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the Tokyo Games in 2021 previously removed several members of the International Olympic Committee from that organization.An official with the financial prosecutor’s office said Tuesday the searches are linked to two preliminary investigations related to the Paris Olympics that had not previously been made public. The official w...

Auto tycoon Ghosn files $1 billion lawsuit in Lebanon against Nissan over his imprisonment in Japan

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:45:22 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn has filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Nissan and about a dozen individuals in Beirut over his imprisonment in Japan and what he says is misinformation spread against him, Lebanese officials said Tuesday.According to the officials, Ghosn’s lawsuit accuses Nissan and the individuals of defamation and of “fabricating charges” against him, which eventually put him behind bars in Japan.The lawsuit was filed last month, the judicial officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the case. The officials did not identify the individuals that Ghosn is accusing. Ghosn was arrested in Japan in November 2018 on charges of breach of trust, misusing company assets for personal gains and violating securities laws by not fully disclosing his compensation. According to Judge Sabbouh Suleiman, who is at the Beirut’s prosecutor’s office, a hearing date in the case was set for September. The judicial officials who spoke to The Associated Press sad ...

Norwegian citizen arrested in Hungary for alleged extremist plot

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:45:22 GMT

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Police have arrested a Norwegian citizen in Hungary on suspicion that he was planning an extremist attack modeled after a 2011 massacre in Norway that killed 77 people, authorities said Tuesday.The National Investigation Office of the Hungarian police said the 45-year-old man had posted numerous videos to the internet in which he described his plans to commit the attacks. After analyzing the videos and identifying the suspect, Hungary’s Counter Terrorism Center arrested the man in a Budapest apartment on June 14 and confiscated his electronic devices. In the videos, the suspect speaks Norwegian and English, police said, and threatens to carry out attacks in airports, railway stations and on airplanes. “I will destroy the innocent,” he said in one video, according to police. The suspect also described his desire to surpass the crimes committed by Norwegian far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in bomb-and-gun massacres in Norway in ...

Europe, US urged to investigate the type of AI that powers systems like ChatGPT

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:45:22 GMT

LONDON (AP) — European Union consumer protection groups urged regulators on Tuesday to investigate the type of artificial intelligence underpinning systems like ChatGPT, citing risks that leave people vulnerable and the delay before the bloc’s groundbreaking AI regulations take effect.In a coordinated effort, 13 watchdog groups wrote to their national consumer, data protection, competition and product safety authorities warning them about a range of concerns around generative artificial intelligence. A transatlantic coalition of consumer groups also wrote to U.S. President Joe Biden asking him to take action to protect consumers from possible harms caused by generative AI. Europe has led the world in efforts to regulate artificial intelligence, which gained urgency with the rise of a new breed of artificial intelligence that gives AI chatbots like ChatGPT the power to generate text, images, video and audio that resemble human work. The EU is putting the finishing touches on the worl...

Billie Jean King recalls the meeting that launched the WTA women’s tennis tour 50 years ago

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:45:22 GMT

A half-century later, Billie Jean King thinks back on the landmark gathering of female tennis players at a London hotel shortly before they competed at Wimbledon and acknowledges she wasn’t sure how things would go that day.“I had no idea. Absolute toss-up. Because you never really know. What I did know was that certain players didn’t like what we were trying to do,” King said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And I did know it had to happen that day. Had to.”Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of the meeting on June 21, 1973, at the Gloucester Hotel — about a mile south of Hyde Park in the heart of the British capital — where King and nearly 60 other players agreed to form what today is known as the Women’s Tennis Association or WTA. They paved the way for their sport, and women’s sports in general, to grow.A reunion at that same hotel on June 30 is planned, with King, a twice-inducted member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame and an equal rights advocate, al...

CP NewsAlert: Amber Alert cancelled, P.E.I girl found safe, suspect arrested

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:45:22 GMT

EGLINGTON, P.E.I. — Prince Edward Island RCMP officials say the Amber Alert for a missing nine-year-old girl has been cancelled.A statement on Twitter says the young girl has been found safe and the man suspected of abducting her, Andrew Blaisdell, has been arrested.The Mounties also say they would like to thank the public for their assistance.The Canadian Press

Rescuers race against time to find missing sub bound for Titanic site

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:45:22 GMT

Rescuers in a remote area of the Atlantic Ocean raced against time early Tuesday to find a missing submersible carrying five people on a mission to document the wreckage of the Titanic, the iconic ocean liner that sank more than a century ago.The carbon-fiber submersible named the Titan, part of a mission by OceanGate Expeditions, carried a pilot, a renowned British adventurer, two members of an iconic Pakistani business family and another passenger. Authorities reported the vessel overdue Sunday night about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, according to Canada’s Joint Rescue Coordination Center.Every passing minute, however, puts the Titan’s crew at greater risk. The submersible had a 96-hour oxygen supply when it put to sea at roughly 6 a.m. Sunday, according to David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate.“It is a remote area — and it is a challenge to conduct a search in that remote area,” said Rear Adm. John Mauger, a commander for the U.S. C...